Door drilling apparatus



G. L. MAYQ DOOR DRILLING APPARATUS May 26, 1970 Fited July 5, 1968 30 III mu E.

W Z ZW Va A T TOR/V5 X United States Patent 3,513,729 DOOR DRILLING APPARATUS George L. Mayo, Fort Worth, Tex., assignor to Clary Corporation, San Gabriel, Calif., a corporation of California Filed July 5, 1968, Ser. No. 742,774 Int. Cl. B23b 41/00, 49/00; B27m 3/00 US. C]. 77-62 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A door finishing machine in which clamp means clamps a door against a supporting surface and also automatically center a drilling and/or cutting tool between the side surfaces of the door regardless of the thickness thereof.

This invention relates to apparatus for drilling and/or recessing doors or the like to receive hardware such as door locks.

Door finishing machines have been developed heretofore to automatically or semi-automatically bore and recess door blanks to receive such items of hardware as door locks. Such machines are generally built for a certain size door or require considerable adjustment and therefore loss of time to set the machine to receive doors of different sizes. For example, when doors of different thicknesses are received, the drilling or boring device for boring the lock bolt hole in the door must generally be centered relative to the side surfaces of the door. In my prior Pat. No. 3,331,410, issued on July 18, 1967, I have disclosed a device for centering a door blank relative to a drilling device for the lock bolt hole. Although this device works satisfactorily, the door must, in most instances, be raised different amounts from its primary supporting surface to center the same relative to the boring device and therefore does not rest on a solid stationary support during the cutting operations. Also, any other cutting or recessing devices would also have to be raised a corresponding amount if they are to be operated at the same time. 7

It therefore becomes a principal object of the present invention to provide apparatus for clamping a door against a fixed support and for automatically centering a drill or other cutting tool relative to the side surfaces of the door, regardless of the thickness of such door.

Another object is to provide a relatively simple and quickly adjustable device for centering a drill or the like relative to the side surfaces of a door.

The manner in which the above and other objects of the invention are accomplished will be readily understood on reference to the following specification when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a transverse sectional view through a door finishing machine, with parts omitted for simplicity, such view taken along the line 11 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken along the line 22 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a side view taken substantially along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the door finishing machine comprises a frame including uprights 11 and cross members 12, 13 and 14 at each end. An angle-shaped guide rail 15 is attached to certain of the uprights along the length of the machine to support one side edge of a wooden door blank, indicated by dot-dash lines 16.

A second angle-shaped guide rail 17 is carried by a carriage, generally indicated at 18, the latter comprising an apron -20 carrying slide bearings 21 adjustable along the cross members 12 and 13 to accommodate door blanks of different widths. The carriage 18 also includes a shelf 22 extending along the upper edge of the apron 20.

An edge guiding rail 23 is attached to certain of the uprights 11 to guide one edge of the door blank and a second guide rail 24 is located to guide the opposite edge of the door. The latter rail is carried by a clamp bar 25 extending along the length of the machine and attached adjacent its oppositeends to rack gear members 26 which are slideable vertically in bearings 27 attached to the apron 20. Such rack gears mesh with gears 28 attached to the opposite ends of a shaft 30. The shaft is rotatably mounted in bearings 31 carried by the shelf 22. Such racks and gears insure parallel up and down movement of theclamp bar to clamp the door blank against the support rail 17.

Means are provided for moving the clamp bar up and down for this purpose a double acting air cylinder 32 is suitably attached to the apron of carriage 18 and is provided with a piston 33 having its piston rod 34 attached to one of the gear racks 26. Air from a suitable supply source (notv shown) is admitted through a suitable valve (also not shown) to the upper or lower ends of the cylinder 32 to accordingly lower or raise the clamp bar.

Means are provided for drilling a lock bolt hole centrally in the edge of the door blank after the same has been clamped against the rail 17 in order to receive part of a door lock to be attached to the door. For this purpose, a drill 35 is provided, being carried and driven by an electric motor 36. The motor is supported by a slide 37 movable on ways provided in a support plate 38 which is integral with a vertically extending gear rack 40. The latter is slidable vertically in bearings 41 and 42 carried by the apron 20 of the carriage and meshes with a gear 43 attached to the shaft 30.

In order to insure parallel vertical movement of the drill 35 and to provide a rigid support therefor, a second gear rack 44 and cooperating gear 45 are provided in spaced relation to the rack 40 and gear 43. The gear racks 40 and 44 are integrally attached to the opposite ends of a cross head 451 to form a vertically movable carriage for the drill. Such carriage extends through an opening 46 in the apron 20.

It will be noted that the gears 43 and 45 have a pitch diameter which is one-half the pitch diameter of the gears 28. Also, the drill 35 and motor 36 are preferably so mounted on the slide 37 that when the clamp bar 25 is brought downward into clamping contact with the door blank 16, the drill will be located exactly centrally between the upper and lower surfaces of the door blank. Thus, regardless of the thickness of the door blank being processed, the drill will always be located to drill a lock bolt hole in the exact center of the door. However, if desired, the drill may be set in an offset condition relative to the slide 37 so that the lock bolt hole will be drilled closer to the upper or lower surface of the door blank but in the same proportional relation to the surfaces for doors of all thicknesses.

Means are provided for advancing the drill 35 into drilling relation with the door blank, and for this purpose, a pair of air cylinders are attached to the plate 38. Pistons 46 within the cylinders have their piston rods suitably connected to a cross head 47 attached to the slide 37.

Other cutting tools may be carried by the cross head 451 or plate 38. For example, means may be provided to raise and lower the drill 35 relative to the plate 38 to enable the tip of the drill member 35 to route a lock face recess in the manner disclosed and claimed in my copending application Ser. No. 741,746, filed July 1, 1968.

Also, means may be provided to cut out recesses in the edge of the door opposite the drill 35 to receive door supporting hinges (not shown) at the same time that the lock bolt hole is being drilled. Suitable means for con- 3 currently cutting such recesses is also disclosed and claimed in my above noted Pat. No. 3,331,410.

Having thus described the invention, what is desired to be secured by United StatesLetters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for finishing a door or the like blank comprising a support for supporting one side surface of said blank,

clamp means engageable with the opposite side surface of said blank for clamping said blank against said support, I said clamp means including a first gear member and a first gear meshing with said gear member,

means for rotatably supporting said first gear against bodily movement relative to said support,

a rotatable cutting tool adapted to cut into one edge ofi said blank,

means including a second gear member for moving said cutting tool in the direction of movement of said first gear member and a second gear operatively connected to said first gear and meshing with said second gear member;

said second gear having a pitch diameter smaller than the pitch diameter of said first gear whereby to locate said cutting tool in the same proportionately located 4 position relative to said side surfaces regardless of the thickness of said blank.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said second gear has a pitch diameter of one-half the pitch diameter of said first gear whereby to center said cutting tool between said side surfaces regardless of the thickness of said blank.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said first and second gear members comprise endwise movable gear racks.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said cutting tool comprises a drill and means for moving said drill toward one edge of said blank.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,763,299 9/1956 Cerf 144-27 FRANCIS S. HUSAR, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 1443, 27 

